5 great superhero Christmas movies and TV episodes to get you feeling festive

5. “Holiday Knights”

Series: Batman: The Animated Series

The very first offering of The Animated Series‘ revamp (also titled The New Batman Adventures), “Holiday Knights” was a tale of, well, three tales – all of which allowed us to see how the criminals of Gotham spent the holidays.

The first of these saw Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy manipulate Bruce Wayne into doing some Christmas shopping on their behalf – a decision that ultimately resulted in them spending the holidays behind bars. The second revolved around Clayface’s attempts to wreak havoc at a busy department store before he was defeated by Batgirl. And the final act saw The Joker attempt to unleash laughing gas on Gotham City on New Year’s Eve – a villainous deed that drew the attention of Batman and new Robin, Tim Drake.

Three tales, three different sides of Gotham at Christmas. What more could you want from a 20-minute Batman episode, really?

4. “Lexmas”

Series: Smallville

A special holiday-themed episode of everyone’s favorite Superman prequel, “Lexmas” saw Lex Luthor get shot and fall into a coma. It’s there that he crosses paths with the ghost of his mother, who shows him what his life could be like if he turned away from the darkness he kept reaching for.

A very Christmas Carol-like offering, it adopted the parable elements of that story really well and, in the process, allowed us to see a more optimistic version of Smallville where everyone was, yes we dare say it, happy. It was heartwarming, enjoyable and surprisingly festive – and it was all capped off by a wonderful performance from Michael Rosenbaum.